“A strong cast, and distinct narrative vision leave EUSOG’s Jesus Christ Superstar only a few technical tweaks short of a triumph.”
📍Church Hill Theatre, Edinburgh
📅 Tue 24 Dec 2022 to Sat 28 Jan 2023
💷 From £10 – Concessions available
🕖 19:30 / 14:30 (Sat)
🕖 Running time (approx.): 1 hours 50 minutes (includes 1 interval)
👍 Produced by: The Edinburgh Savoy Opera Group
🎬 Director: Izzy Ponsford
🎶 Music Directors: Falk Meier & Emily Paterson
🩰 Choreographer: Emily Bealer
🔨 Set Designer: Jacob Henney assisted by Phee Simpson and Luca Stier
🎂 Parental Discretion
🎭 Wheelchair Accessible Venue, Wheelchair Accessible Toilet, No Audio Induction Loop
Dear reader, much has already been written about this student production of Jesus Christ Superstar, almost all of it due to its gender-blind casting. As a reviewer, I couldn’t care less if this show, or any other, cast a trained polar bear in a principal role. Only one question matters: is this show any good? The simple answer is yes, it’s not bad at all.
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s 1971 smash Rock Opera offers a Judas point of view account of the Passion of Jesus Christ. Though recognisable to the Biblically aware, Rice’s 20th century book is no slave to the Gospel accounts, freely borrowing 70’s ideas and slang to contemporise the story. Lloyd Webber’s score is a lively affair, a prog-rock, gospel and rock infused landscape rich in melody, motif, and a healthy dose of lyrical screaming. To call it popular is to understate an original album which shifted 7 million copies by 1983, and a show prone to lavish professional stagings worldwide ever since.
Which brings us back to this new rendition by the Edinburgh Savoy Opera Group, on the delightful, and compact stage of the Church Hill Theatre. Led by Hollie Avery as Judas Iscariot and Roza Stevenson as Jesus Christ, there’s every evidence of a thoughtful, and earnest undertaking. Their orchestral counterparts in the pit, led by Falk Meier and Emily Paterson, have a ball with the iconic score, blasting any fears of an underpowered show to dust within the first 5 minutes.
Indeed, fired up, and high on adrenaline, EUSOG’s first act on opening night veered towards combat, rather than concord betwixt singers and instrumentalists. Only those familiar with the book had any real chance of deciphering the first five minutes of Judas’s narrated opening, such was the rivalry. Which is a great pity, as Hollie Avery has a rich, potent, and flexible voice. Thankfully, something approaching a truce was found towards the intermission, and the second act proved a better balanced affair.
The supporting cast are, nonetheless, a consistent source of excellence. Ruby Loftus brings some Bonnie Tyler realness as Simon Zealotes; Gordon Stackhouse stuns with some Chris de Burgh range as Pontius Pilate; Kathleen Davie is pitch perfect as Annas; Sofia Pricolo offers a sweet, and surprisingly innocent Mary Magdalene; and Joey Lawson is an all singing, all dancing, all show-stealing Herrod. Each manges that particular trick of creating a memorable character with limited time front and centre.
Roza Stevenson certainly creates a striking Jesus, their bi-colour hair alluding perhaps to the dual-aspects of Christ’s psychology. Theirs is rather a troubled leader, more prone to angst than stoicism. It’s a legitimate reading, but it does place them on the back foot when seeking the supposed Messiah’s more charismatic requirements. It’s also tricky to approach the part musically without the Rock Tenor voice Lloyd Webber had in mind for a role originated by Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan.
However, Superstar, no matter the quality of the other cast, thrives or dies on the quality of its Judas, and in that respect EUSOG have chosen very well with Hollie Avery. From the start she really digs into the part, creating a furious Judas in a fearless, and memorable performance. I expect that with opening night complete, the band will back off a little and give her even more chance to shine with a shade less need for lung power, and more scope to communicate.
The staging is admirably restrained, a scaffold walkway providing scope to elevate the drama as required, particularly during the closing crucifixion. The safety railing obscuring the cross is unfortunate, but one imagines health and safety to be an unsympathetic master. A large cruciform box on wheels dominates centre stage, providing podium, table, and bed as required. It’s not the most subtle prop, but the well drilled cast make the most of it. Costumes and the occasional prop nod to this Christ as a child of the 90’s, and free the cast from an excess of sack cloth and sandals even if Superstar stubbornly remains a conjuring of 70’s music and philosophy.
Unquestionably, Director Izzy Ponsford manifests a distinct vision of Jesus Christ Superstar, angrier perhaps, and less enamoured of the final sacrifice than others. It’s pacey, well-marshalled storytelling, which allows just enough time to let its stars shine. She and Sound Designer, Martha Barlow, have hopefully since rebalanced the show’s soundscape away from orchestral dominance. A strong cast, and distinct narrative vision leave EUSOG’s Jesus Christ Superstar only a few technical tweaks short of a triumph.
EUSOG was 10 years old when the curtain first rose upon Supertstar, and on the evidence of this showing will be entertaining the city for decades more to come. If you’d like to know more about the creation of EUSOG’s gender-blind Jesus Christ Superstar, read my interview with Creative Producer Lew Forman and Roza Stevenson here.
(Photography Credits: Jacob Howorth )
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